Hello all
I've been asked to write a piece of theatre which highlights the issues around the 'Transformation of Local Government' and the role HR managers and leaders can play. Yikes!
Any ideas, rants, stories you have around this, or about the 'skills gap' we are said to have in this country, I would love to hear them. It's always great to hear examples of the characters and the behaviours you might have encountered when getting involved in this agenda.
Any thoughts very much welcomed. Thanks.
Amanda O
2 Responses
as you have said “theatre”….
Amanda
here is a thought…
there is a general perception that the civil servant is fundamentally resistant to "change" (I assume that will do as a short form of "transformation").
In my work with the civil service (local government, police, NGOs and central govt depts) one comment I frequently hear is that the problem isn’t a resistance to change but a constant requirement to change;
~every time the media pick up a new flavour of the month our political masters change the goalposts
~every time the leading party in power has a change of leadership/reshuffle, the goalposts change again
~every time we get to the point in the year when the finance department/treasury suddenly tell us that we have either overspent the budget or "gotta spend it quick before the end of the financial year", then everything changes
~every time there is a cock up everything changes several times; initially when we stop doing it (to prevent a repeat), then as a piecemeal response to the leaks from the public enquiry, then as a wholesale change in response to the enquiry’s formal recommendations and then as a response to the bloodletting as the "culprits" are identified and moved.
~every time we go from "business as usual" to "election fever" mode everything changes again.
~every time there is a new elected governement who want to appear to be a "new broom" we all get new targets and new mission statements
Life in the civil service is a constant matter of transformation……..but is it actually "good" transformation?
Rus
Transformation of Local Government
I am a Trainer living in the North East.
I used to run training sessions for staff at The Government Office for the North East. They were always well received and I was told were appropriate and effective.
After the Gershon Report, the purchase of training services was centralised somewhere else in the UK.
I no longer get opportunities to work for the Government Office for the North East